CI5472 Teaching Film, Television, and Media

Media representations of different groups of people based on
age (children, adolescents, the elderly), or occupation often essentialize,
generalize, or categorize people based on stereotypical generalizations
about individuals. It is assumed that certain prototypical images,
language use, or social practices of a group are represented in
a single token representative person — that a black gang member
serves as a representative of all black adolescents.

Again, what is important is to help students to go beyond simply
identifying the stereotyping to determine the origins of these representations.
One of the incentives to essentialized, generalize or categorize
people into groups is to create a hierarchy in which certain groups
are perceived as inferior scapegoats, as did Hitler with Jews during
World War II. Another incentive is to use these prototypes to ridicule
or parody the shortcomings of a particular group, for example, to
create humor out of the stereotype itself.

Children/adolescents

Children are often portrayed in the media or films in negative
or stereotypical ways. For example, based on an analysis by British
18-year-olds of British newspapers, students identified what they
perceived to be seven stereotypes of children in the media:

Kids as victims.

Cute kids sell newspapers.

Little devils.

Kids are brilliant.

Kids as accessories.

“Kids these days.”

Brave little angels.

A
study by Professor Katharine Heintz-Knowles for Children Now
of the representation of children on television found that children
are often portrayed as motivated primarily by peer relationships,
sports, and romance, and least often by community, school-related,
or religious issues. Children are also rarely shown as coping with
societal issues such as racism, substance abuse, public safety,
or homelessness or major family issues such as family crises, child
abuse, domestic abuse, or family values. And, about 70% of the children
portrayed are engaged in pro-social actions such as sharing, telling
the truth in difficult situations, meeting their responsibilities,
and helping others of the time, while 40% are portrayed as engaged
in anti-social actions, such as lying, neglecting their responsibilities,
or being aggressive either verbally or physically. Physical aggression
was portrayed as effective in meeting the child’s goal most
of the time, and deceitful behavior is seen as effective nearly
half of the time.

In this study, children of color were under-represented. 80%
were white; 13.7% were African-American, 4% were Asian-American,
and only 2.1% were Hispanic/Latino, as compared to the actual population
percentages of 69% of children under 18 are white, 15% are African-American,
3.3% are Asian-American, and 12.2% are Hispanic/Latino.

Another
study by Professor Dale Kunkel, also for Children Now, on the
types of issues covered by news about children indicated that the
primary focus of the coverage was on crime and violence —
about half of all television news stories, and about 40% of all
newspaper articles. Economic topics such as child poverty, child
care, and welfare accounted for only 4% of all news stories about
children. Only about a third of all stories dealt with public policy
concerns associated with children.

Adolescents are often portrayed in being in a crisis state, without
providing them with tools for critically analyzing reasons for their
problems. In the following three sites, David Considine, argues
that the media present adolescents with a lot of consumer options
and portrayals of substance abuse, but do not provide any critical
analysis of these options/abuse or strategies for coping with them:

Adolescents are also represented as members of prototypical groups
— jocks, nerds, druggie, brains, underdogs, athletes, etc.
Students could identify the nature of these groups in films and
television programs and note the limitations of representations
of these groups. For example, the trailer for the film The
Goonies contains a number of stereotypical group representations.

At the other end of the spectrum, the elderly are often represented
in equally limited ways. A study sponsored by Children Now of prime
time television programs in the Fall of 2000 found that only
3% of the characters were 70 and older, and only 13% fell between
the ages of 50 and 69, in contrast to the reality that 9% of the
American population is over 70 and 28% are over 50. There was also
a gender bias; only 19% of women were over age 40.

Sandy Landis conducted an analysis of media representations of
the elderly in her CI5472 paper in Spring 2002:

In the May 21, 2002 issue of Family Circle, of the approximately
185 identifiable faces in illustrations, 15, or 8%, were conceivably
over 55 years of age. Of fifteen representations, four were part
of the same story, and seven, nearly half, were connected with
products or services to help with the “problems” of
aging: arthritis, anemia, incontinence, and wrinkles.

Of the approximately 177 identifiable faces in the June, 2002,
issue of Better Homes and Gardens, 22, or 12% were feasibly
over 55. Of these 22 “old” faces, three appeared in
a single movie ad, and five were advertising health products for
the elderly.

In the June 2002 issue of Good Housekeeping, of the
approximately 159 identifiable faces, only ten, or 6% were likely
to be over 55. Of these ten older faces, three appeared in one
advertisement for an upcoming film release and four were advertising
health remedies for the aged.

In the June 4, 2002 edition of Woman’s Day, 24
of 229 identifiable faces, or 10%, were possibly over 55. Of these
24 older faces, ten appeared in a single photograph and five were
advertising health products for the elderly.

Landis analyzed the representations of the elderly in film and
television and found that they were highly one-dimensional in that
any complexity of these characters were limited to one or two particularly
makers of aging:

“Grumpy old man.” (Grumpy Old Men, Grumpier Old
Men ,The Sunshine Boys, It’s a Wonderful Life, On Golden
Pond, King of the Hill, The Simpsons)

No clear cut, definitive negative stereotypes of
elderly people emerged from this study; in fact, elderly characters
did not appear in the anticipated commercial categories. For example,
elderly characters did not appear in roles for products such as
arthritis medication, denture care products, or skin wrinkle creams,
nor did they appear in sick, weak, fragile, or absent-minded roles.

It appears that the image of elderly people
in prime time television commercials is less negative than previously
thought. Advertisers may have taken the cue from published research
and made an obvious effort to avoid perpetuating the sick, weak
old person stereotype. However, the effect of this has been
to reduce the overall opportunities for visibility of elderly
characters.

For instance, Madison Avenue won’t
break the stereotype by routinely showing older characters
in positive situations, but it will make certain that older
characters do not appear in negative, stereotyped situations,
either. As illustrated in the data from this and other studies,
elders are still significantly underrepresented in proportion
to their true occurrence within the U.S. population.